Fever is not a disease but rather a symptom of an illness.
It may help parents to remember that fever is only one part of the picture of an illness. In fact, for children under eight years of age, and especially for infants, the severity of a fever is an unreliable indicator of the severity of the child's illness.Childhood fevers frighten grownups. Fever is maligned and misunderstood. Controversy surrounding the management of fever causes anxiety for parents, because they are not completely sure what to do when their child has one.
For example, infants and toddlers can be very sick with a low or even subnormal temperature. Conversely, children three to eight years old can be running about quite cheerfully with a fairly impressive fever. The important thing is how your child is acting, not the thermometer reading.
Defining Fever
First, let's define normal body temperature. Most people say 98.6ºF (37ºC) is normal, but this doesn't account for individual variations or the fact that kids tend to run slightly hotter than adults. You can think of anything between 97.8; and 99.F (36; and 37.4&C) as normal.
Consumption of hot food, recent exercise, overbundling, hot weather, or an overheated room can drive body temperature up a degree or two. Body temperature also varies during the course of the day, and, with teenaged girls, the menstrual cycle.
Fevers usually hit their highest point in the late afternoon.
Conversely, kids often have their lowest temperature of the day early in the morning. So don't panic at 4 p.m. when your child's fever rises slightly; this does not necessarily forebode a raging fever. On the other hand, if your child has a low-grade fever upon awakening, you may want to keep him home.
How Fever Happens
Infections most commonly launch fever, especially in children. Other triggers include transfusion reactions, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, tumors, inflammatory reactions caused by trauma, medications (including some antihistamines, antibiotics, or an overdose of aspirin), immunizations, and dehydration.
Most physicians do not believe that teething directly causes significant fever, but we have seen it happen.
When infectious "bugs" stimulate white blood cells in a specific way, they release a substance called endogenous pyrogen, which signals the brain's hypothalamus to raise the body's thermostat setting. In turn, the body heats up by increasing its metabolic rate, shivering, or seeking warm environments.
It also minimizes heat loss by restricting blood flow to the skin, giving it a pale appearance. Once body temperature rises, the skin flushes and sweats. A fever sufferer may lose appetite and feel lethargic, achy, and sleepy. When these phenomena happen to our children, we just tuck them into bed and let them sleep.
A basic fever, one due to minor bacterial or viral illness, can be an expression of the immune system working at its best. Given that most animals (vertebrates anyway) mount a fever in response to illness, it's likely that humans have preserved this evolutionary response because it improves survival. Some research supports this theory; animal studies show when fever is blocked, survival rates from infection decline.
Fever increases the amount of interferon (a natural antiviral and anticancer substance) in the blood. A mild fever also increases the white blood cells that kill cells infected with viruses, fungi, and cancer, and improves the ability of certain white blood cells to destroy bacteria and infected cells. Fever also impairs the replication of many bacteria and viruses.
Bottom line: A moderate fever is a friend, but not one you want to spend a lot of time with. So it makes sense to avoid suppressing moderate fevers with drugs, while continuing to monitor your child for dramatic increases in temperature and worsening of any other of his symptoms. If child starts to shake, throw a wet, icy towel over his entire hair surface of head. Not necessarily over nose or mouth!
(found online)
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